Vietnam, RoK enjoy deeper strategic cooperative partnership

Seoul (VNA) – Prime Minister of the
Republic of Korea (RoK) Lee Nak-yon and Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Truong
Hoa Binh expressed their pleasure at the growing strategic cooperative
partnership between the two countries during their meeting in Seoul on November
21.

The two sides exchanged specific measures to enhance
political trust and cooperative relations in the coming time via maintaining
high-level delegation exchanges and implementing effectively existing
cooperation mechanisms and dialogues such as the Vietnam-RoK strategic dialogue
on diplomacy, security and defense, and the bilateral free trade agreement to
increase two-way trade to 100 billion USD by 2020.

They agreed to beef up cooperation in other fields
such as culture, education, tourism, labour, and people-to-people exchanges
while actively supporting and ensuring safety and legitimate rights for
citizens in the respective countries, and enhancing coordination at
multilateral forums.

Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh thanked the RoK’s Government
for providing one million USD to support flood victims in the central part of
Vietnam.

Binh invited Korean firms to involve in the process of
equitising State-owned enterprises, restructuring commercial banks, and
developing special administrative-economic zones in Vietnam.

He proposed the RoK facilitate the entry of Vietnamese
strong products to the market, especially agro-forestry-fishery products, as
well as support Vietnam to join the RoK’s global supply chains and provide
non-refundable aid packages for technical assistance, human resources training,
agricultural and rural development, and energy safety.

The official urged the two countries to soon sign a
support agreement in civil affairs and trade and extending a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) on supplying and receiving Vietnamese workers to the RoK
under the Employment Permit System (EPS), which will be invalid in May 2018.

He asked the RoK to apply visa exemption and make it
easier for Vietnamese tourists to enter the RoK in addition to increasing
direct flights between the two countries. He suggested enhancing coordination
in regional and international affairs of mutual concerns, especially keeping
peace and stability in the Asian-Pacific region.

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon spoke highly of the two
countries’ relations after 25 years of establishing diplomatic ties. He
stressed that the RoK’s Government attaches great importance to developing
strategic cooperative partnership with Vietnam and will direct all relevant
ministries and departments to implement effectively the bilateral cooperation
agreements.

The same day, Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh received
President of the RoK-Vietnam Friendship Association Choi Young-joo, during
which he proposed the association continue coordinating with the Vietnam-RoK
Friendship Association and the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK to promote the two
countries’ cooperation, especially in economics and people-to-people exchanges.

He later met with representatives from the RoK’s
leading businesses, including the SK Group, the KB Financial Group, and the
Maeil Business Newspaper.-VNA